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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers

R&D Magazine is now accepting entries for the 2015 R&D 100 Awards, the esteemed international competition honoring the 100 most innovative technologies and services in 2014. This year’s program has been expanded to include a wider range of categories spanning the manufacturing, design engineering, and consumer markets, in addition to science, academia, and government.

Choosing the “Manufacturing’s Winner and Loser of the Week” was a little bit more challenging this week as there were a few contenders for each position. Check out who ended up receiving the weekly nods — and if you agree.

It took just minutes for a flash fire near a bag dump station inside a New Jersey ink plant to set off an orange fireball that engulfed seven workers. Now, after releasing its report of the incident, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board is blaming outdated combustible dust regulations for contributing to the accident, and urging OSHA to respond with national rules.

From the end of 2014, solar deployment is slated to be up nearly 40% over 2013. Today, the booming demand for solar energy supports more than 173,000 jobs and the U.S. has become the third largest solar market in the world.

Bob Shanks, chief financial officer of Ford Motor Co., talks about the automaker's profit and sales outlook, the aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup truck, the performance of the company's European unit and the impact of currencies on competition from Asia.

The Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday approved a bipartisan bill to construct the Keystone XL oil pipeline, defying a presidential veto threat and setting up the first of many battles with the White House over energy and the environment.

With all the news of recalls it is understandable that some would believe that cars are not as safe as they used to be. However, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is here to say that those concerns are actually quite unfounded, and cars are safer now than they have ever been.

Dan Ammann, president of GM, talks about the outlook for global sales, vehicle safety and the automaker's business strategy with Tom Keene of Bloomberg Business at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Last fall, the British Royal Navy commissioned a powerful new high-tech frigate so silent that it would be able to sneak up on submarines undetected. The ship, called the Type 26 frigate, has been designated to become “the workhorse” of the British fleet.